By freshman outside hitter Alexandria Drake (Phoenix AZ)

Last Thursday I was filled with excitement while I packed as I meticulously decided what would make the cut of being “New York worthy”. It had been ten years since the last time I was in the Big Apple. Growing up in Phoenix Arizona a trip to New York City wasn’t exactly the most convenient thing.

There is a University Athletic Association (UAA) rule that says only fourteen players from a team may dress for a UAA match because of this usually only fourteen players are allowed to travel to UAA matches that involve flying. However due to some negotiations all seventeen of the varsity volleyball girls happily boarded the bus to Cleveland’s Hopkins Airport.

Once we arrived at Newark Liberty Airport we boarded another bus to take us to the hotel. We quickly dropped our bags off and got back on the bus. I had forgotten just how massive the city was. Driving around Manhattan our bus seemed like a tiny ant in comparison to the towering sky scrapers. We got dropped off at the Staten Island Ferry. From the ferry we could see the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island and a picture perfect view of Manhattan. So what happens when you have picture crazy girls a ferry and some of the most iconic images in the United States? For the Case Western Volleyball team it means over 100 pictures on my camera that range from serious pictures to funny pictures and even some jumping pictures.

After the ferry we walked about half a mile along the water to a mall. We broke off into small groups and had two hours to shop and eat. Then we headed back to the hotel to rest up for two tough matches against The University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon. Going into the second UAA Round Robin we were sitting at an impressive 17-3 overall record and 3rd in the UAA standings and were eager to keep adding to our successes. Our first match against Chicago proved frustrating as we couldn’t seem to pull everything together and lost the match 3-0. Despite this we kept our heads up and pulled out an impressive win against Carnegie Mellon in five games.

After our daily play had finished we all primped for our night out in NYC. The coaches had picked out a restaurant close to NYU’s campus called “Silver Spur.” After struggling to decipher the far from proper English on the themed menu I ate one of the most mouth-watering burgers I have ever had. The bus then dropped us off at Times Square. I have never heard so much honking or yelling as all 22 of us got of the bus. The lights and atmosphere of Times Square were mesmerizing! We made our way through the crowded walkways to the Palace Theater to see West Side Story on Broadway. The theater was beautiful and the show was incredible! I had never seen West Side Story before and it exceeded my already high expectations. The show ended around 11pm and we got back on the bus. The city that never sleeps obviously proved too much for us seeing as all of us crashed on the bus during the 30 minute ride back to the hotel.

We knew going into day two of competition we had a tough day ahead of us. We were to play Emory (who is always a powerhouse in 394Division III volleyball) and NYU who was a solid team with home court advantage. After a hard battle we dropped the match to Emory in three sets. NYU proved to be a tough match as well. After losing the first game we came out with fire and took game two. We split the next two games and the match came down to a 5th game a battle to 15 points. Despite a solid fight by the Spartans NYU came out victorious in a painful loss.

We may have left New York City without the record or UAA standing we had hoped but now we have a new determination to come back and prove ourselves at the UAA Championships in Chicago in two weeks. Until then every practice every drill and every ball is a chance for us to improve on that overall goal for a NCAA at-large bid.